End forming device



June 29, 1937. w H. BLOUNT ET AL 2,085,570

END FORMING DEVICE Filed Sept. 50, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet l Jun e 29, 1937. I w. H. BLOUNT ET AL 2,085,570.

END FQRMING DEVICE Filed Sept. 30, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 W. H. BLOUNT ET AL END FORMING DEVICE June 29, 1937.

Filed Sept. 50, 1935 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 f. w.-- r NH, Fwd w M NH m edtvy 72a ams" to if by a tangential projecting wire II Patented June 29, 1937 END FORMING DEVICE William H. Blount, West Brookfield, and Percival S. Thomas, Worcester, Mass, assignors to Sleeper & Hartley, Inc., Worcester, Mass, a corporation of Massachusetts Application September 30, 1935, Serial No. 42,732

7 Claims.

bending it back into parallelism therewith, and

finally bending it; at right angles thereto; to provide an arrangement by which the wire will also be bent from a position tangent to the coil into a radial position; to provide a series of dies for performing the above mentioned operations comprising two opposite tail bending dies, a tail setting die,'and a stripper die; to provide simple and convenient means by which these dies will operate in the proper order without involving expensive additions to the wire coiling machine, and to provide improvements in the dies.

Other objects and advantages of the invention will appear hereinafter.

Reference is to be had drawings, in which i Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a wire coiling to the accompanying machine showing a preferred embodiment of this invention, with parts broken away;

Fig. 2 is a plan of the same with parts in section;

Fig. 3 is an end view as indicated by the arrow 3 in Fig. 2;

Fig. 4 is a sectional View on the line 4-4 of F l Fig. 5 is an enlarged elevation showing a part of the construction shown in Fig. 1 but illustrating the die slides in full;

Fig. 6 is a similar elevation showing the dies;

Fig. 7 .is a sectional view on the line 1-1 in Fig. 6;

Fig. 8 is an elevation of the spring after it has been operated upon by this device, and

Fig. 9 is an end View of the same spring showing one of the operations. This invention is intended to be used as an attachment to, or apart of, a wire coiling machine for producing a wire coil, such as shown at 10, but it is not restricted to the coiling of wire; The end of this coil is formed, in the present instance, which is straight. This machine is designed to bend this wire from the position shown in Fig. '7 to that shown in Figs. 8 and 9 in full lines in which the tangential part II is moved into a radial position. The wire is also bent at two points so 'as to provide a lateral part l3 extending at an obtuse angle from the wire and is then brought back to parallel position l4, cut off and finally bent'to form a through a T-shaped slide 45 and slot 46.

transverse end l5. It is also bent from the dotted line position in Fig. 9. to the full line position.

Very little of the main machine is shown. The base it carries a slide H, which is movable lengthwise of the base. ed a block 20 on which the die slides are mounted. The block 26 is adjustable across the machine to the extent of several slots l3 and fixed in adjusted position by screws IS. The slide carries a shaft 2| which is the driving shaft of the attachment. ciprocate is a rack 22 having teeth in its side which mesh with a pinion 23 on a shaft 24. This rack is driven in accordance with an old machine for coiling the wire to which this invention is an addition, or it can be reciprocated in any desired way. The reciprocation of the rack oscillates the pinion a few revolutions at a time. Therefore, it oscillates the shaft 24 and the gear 25 mounted thereon which meshes with a long gear 26 carried by a reciprocating shaft 2'! and rotates that shaft. The shaft 21 carries a head 28 on which a winding arbor 29is mounted on which the coil is produced by the rotation of this arbor.

The features up to this point are all present in a prior machine on the market.

The shaft 2| carries a gear 30 meshing with a gear 3| on a cam shaft 32. v driven in any desired manner. The shaft 2|,as stated, is mounted directly on the slide l1. On

On the slide I! is mount- Also mounted on the base to re- 9 The shaft 2| is and vcarrying end uprights which in turn carry bearings for the shaft 32 and a pair of pivot pins On these pivot pins are mounted two pairs of levers 31, each pair having a spring 38 which tends to hold them toward each other. On the shaft 32 are four cams 39 and on the four levers 37 are four rollers 40, each engaging one of said cams. The spring '38 holds these rollers against the cams and the cams obviously swing these levers about their stationary pivots 36. At the bottom each of these levers is connected with a link. .These four links are numbered respectively 40a, 4|; 42 and 43.

It will be observed that the link 40a. is connected with a slide 44 and moves that slide in a straight line and in the direction of the motion of the link. The connection with the slide is The slide moves in ways 41 in the block 20 which, in the form shown, is square in shape and is provided with cross grooves forming ways for the four slides that are to be described. The link 4| reciprocates and through a pivot link 48 moves Slide 50 and the link 43 extends across the block and operates a slide 5| which moves in a path in line with that of the slide 44. It will be observed that these slides, although moving in a similar manner, have their own motions owing to the different locations of the projections on the several cams 39.

Fixed on the slides 49 and 50 by means of straps 52, or in any other desired way, are upper and lower tail bending dies53 and 54. These are adapted to be adjusted by the loosening of the strap 52 and by the operation of adjusting screws 55. Also on the slide 5| is mounted a tail setting die 56. and slot shaping surfaces. stripper die 51.

The wire, as it is wound on the arbor 29, passes out of the machine tangentially through the center of these dies as it goes to the end of the spring in a straight line. The dies ,53 and 54 are complementary dies and shape the wire on opposite sides longitudinally with respect to the spring. By these two dies this wire is bent from the straight line condition as shown at l i in Fig. 8. These dies have complementary inclined surfaces 60 and BI which form the bend l3 at an obtuse angle. These dies also have opposite On the slide 44 is a straight parallel surfaces 62 which form the portion M of the wire parallel with the part H. They also have cutting edges 63 which cut the wire off and bend it down into the position shown at l5. The tail setting die has an edge surface not shown which comes up against the wire when in the condition shown in dotted lines in Fig. 9, that is, extending tangentially from the coil, and projects it into a radial condition as shown in full-lines in Fig. 9. The stripper die 5'! moves from the position shown in Fig. 6 inwardly so that its operating edge 58 will push the wire H downwardly along the arbor and strip the spring from the arbor. V

In this way it will be seen that, by comparatively little mechanism, means is provided for bending the end of a wire in this case into the particular shape shown in Figs. 8 and 9 but that the same principle can be employed for other bending operations providing automatic means for bending the end of a spring coil or bending a wire of any other nature, whether in the form of a spring or not.

The mechanism is comparatively simple and the cost of operation of the wire coiling machine is not increased by the provision of this addition.

Having thus described my invention and the advantages thereof, we do not wish to be limited to the details herein disclosed, otherwise than as set forth in the claims, but what we claim is:

1. In an end forming device, the combination of a cam shaft, a series of cams carried thereby, a corresponding series of pivoted levers, each having a roll contacting and controlled by a Single one of said cams, a link connected to the lever to be moved thereby, said links extending in the same general direction, two slides movable in the direction in which the links extend, two of said links being connected with the said slides for moving them back and forth in that direction, two slides reciprocable in a direction at an angle to the direction of the links, the other two of the links having pivotal connections with the last two named slides for operating them in the transverse direction, and tools on all of said slides for operating on the end of a wire to form it to the desired shape.

2. In an end forming device, the combination of a series of pivoted levers, means for operating These dies have complementary tongue said levers, a link connected to each lever to be moved thereby, two slides reciprocable in one direction, two of said links being connected with the said slides for moving them back and forth, two slides reciprocable in a direction at an angle to the direction of the first named slides, the other two of the links having pivotal connections with the last two named slides for operating them in the transverse direction, and tools on all of said slides for operating on the end of a wire to form it of the desired shape.

3. In a wire end forming device, the combination of a block having two guides at right angles to each other, a pair of slides in each guide reciprocable toward and from each other, means for reciprocating said slides in the desired order, tools mounted on said slides for operating on a wire, said tools comprising a pair of opposite tail bending dies having surfaces for bending a wire in a transverse direction at an obtuse angle to the original direction of the wire to form two parallel parts of the Wire connected by a slanting part, said dies also having surfaces for bending the end of the wire at right angles, and means for cutting off the end of the wire, one of the other dies having a surface thereon provided with means for setting the wire from a tangential position to a radial position with respect to the coil with which the wire is connected, and the die on the fourth slide having means for stripping a coil from the machine after its end is formed.

4. In a wire end forming device, the combination of a block having two guides at right angles to each other, a pair of slides in each guide reciprocable toward and from each other, means for reciprocating said slides in the desired order, and tools mounted on said slides for operating on a wire, said tools comprising a pair of opposite tail bending tools having surfaces for bending a wire in a transverse direction at an obtuse angle to the original direction of the wire to form two parallel parts of the wire connected by a slanting part.

5. In a wire end forming machine, the combination of a pair of dies, one of them having a slot for receiving the wire and the other a projection for engaging the wire on the Opposite side, the slot being formed with a slanting surface and the projection with a corresponding slanting surface to bend the wire out of its plane, said dies having means for cutting off the end of the wire and also having right angular surfaces for bending the end of the wire at right angles to its natural course.

6. In a wire end forming machine, the combination of an arbor on which a spring is adapted to be coiled, means for forming a straight following end on the spring projecting tangentially therefrom, a tail setting die, and means for moving said die substantially tangentially into a position to bend the butt end of the tangential end inwardly against the circumference of the coil so that the tangential end shall project from the coil radially.

7. In a wire end forming device, the combination with an arbor on which the coil is adapted to be wound, of a tool movable toward. the coil and having a slanting blunt edge for engaging the wire at the end of the coil, means for moving said tool transversely to the arbor at the side thereof for stripping the coil as a whole from the arbor by the transverse motion of said slanting edge.

' WILLIAM H. BLOUNT.

PERCIVAL S. THOMAS. 

